Dhammapada 15: Happiness

(Sukhavaggo)

Translated by Ven Nārada

197. Ah, happily do we live without hate amongst the hateful; amidst hateful men we dwell unhating.

198. Ah, happily do we live in good health1 amongst the ailing; amidst ailing men we dwell in good health.

199. Ah, happily do we live without yearning (for sensual pleasures) amongst those who yearn (for them); amidst those who yearn (for them) we dwell without yearning.

200. Ah, happily do we live we who have no impediments.2 Feeders of joy shall we be even as the gods of the Radiant Realm.

201. Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain. Happily the peaceful live, giving up victory and defeat.

202. There is no fire like lust, no crime like hate. There is no ill like the body,3 no bliss higher than Peace (Nibbāna).

203. Hunger4 is the greatest disease. Aggregates5 are the greatest ill. Knowing this as it really is, (the wise realize) Nibbāna, bliss supreme.

204. Health is the highest gain. Contentment is the greatest wealth. The trusty6 are the best kinsmen. Nibbāna is the highest bliss.

205. Having tasted the flavour of seclusion and the flavour of appeasement,7 free from anguish and stain becomes he, imbibing the taste of the joy of the Dhamma.

206. Good is the sight of the Ariyas: their company is ever happy. Not seeing the foolish, one may ever be happy.

207. Truly he who moves in company with fools grieves for a long time. Association with the foolish is ever painful as with a foe. Happy is association with the wise, even like meeting with kinsfolk.

208. Therefore:- With the intelligent, the wise,8 the learned,9 the enduring,10 the dutiful,11 and the Ariya12 — with a man of such virtue and intellect should one associate, as the moon (follows) the starry path.

[4] Ordinary diseases are usually curable by a suitable remedy, but hunger has to be appeased daily.

[5] Here Saṅkhāra is used in the sense of khandha, the five Aggregates - namely: the body (rūpa), feeling (vedanā), perception (saññā), mental states (saṅkhārā), and consciousness (viññāna).

The so-called being is composed of these five constituent parts. Both khandha and saṅkhārā are used to denote these five conditioned things. Excluding feeling and perception, the remaining fifty mental states are implied by the term saṅkhāra in the five Aggregates.